It's Called Marriage
by ninakinsmn
Summary: Professor River Song has something she urgently needs to tell her husband, but she hasn't been able to get a hold of an old enough version of him. (Time babies. Who can resist writing about them?)
1. Chapter 1: You Weren't Answering Your

**Chapter 1 - You Weren't Answering Your Phone**

Professor River Song set her pen down with a sigh. She had read the same paragraph three times now, but was far too distracted to absorb it, let alone evaluate it competently enough to give her student the appropriate feedback. Being a professor was insufferably dull sometimes, especially grading papers, and she'd been spending a lot more time than usual lately on such routine tasks. It had been ages since she'd gone on an expedition and almost as long since she had seen her husband.

Her husband. He was most definitely responsible for her distracted state. She really wanted him to show up so she could slap him (among other things), but it had become nearly impossible to contact him since she had become a professor. When she did manage to get in touch with him, he was always too young to tell him everything that was on her mind, either in his "Pretty Boy" incarnation or in the one she had nicknamed "Baby Face", which was the most unpredictable one of all, sometimes knowing her very well and sometimes not knowing her at all. She had yet to reach the day she dreaded, the day her "Pretty Boy" didn't even know her name, but she was fairly certain she knew what was going on. His older self was avoiding her because he knew she was going to die soon.

That thought wouldn't usually bother her. She had spent most of her life courting death with nearly as much passion as she courted her Doctor. Everyone dies. That was a given. The key was to live as full a life as possible and she most certainly had. Besides, a part of her had been dead ever since that terrible day on Trenzalore when she had sealed her husband's tomb with his name and with her tears. He had made certain that she wouldn't be able to prevent his death no matter what she tried, as it was apparently the most fixed of fixed points in the history of the universe. Not that she didn't try anyway. Oh, how she'd tried. As she had cradled him in her arms and watched his life slip away, he had told her not to fret because she would have centuries to spend with his younger self.

"You and me, time and space, you watch us run."

His words had been scant consolation to her at the time, but he had been telling the truth. They had had some glorious centuries together. She'd seen things most people could never imagine, done things most people would never dream of doing, and enjoyed most of it immensely. Still, after watching him die for real, it had taken a very long time before she could gather up her courage to go back to the Stormcage so his younger selves could find her and she tried to stay away from his final incarnation after that. She understood perfectly why he would avoid her towards the end of her timeline because she had done the same with him after watching him die. It hurt too much to see him knowing how close he was to his end and the temptation to interfere was far too great.

No, she was willing to accept her death. Except for one thing. One thing that had changed her life forever and made her desperate to find him when he was old enough to confide in.

"One psychopath per TARDIS"

That had to be the lamest excuse that she had ever used on him. He hadn't pressed the issue and she knew it was because he was hurting so much over the loss of her parents that he wasn't thinking clearly. (Her"Baby Face" Doctor was always especially terrible at dealing with endings.) She was in so much pain herself that day that she couldn't think very clearly either and wasn't quite sure how to tell him her news anyway. So she hadn't told him what the TARDIS had revealed to her as she was piloting them away from New York after the Weeping Angel had taken her parents. Hadn't told him the real reason she couldn't stay with him in the TARDIS at that time.

She had always thought that it would be impossible for her to have children. Her reproductive system had never functioned the same way as a fully human woman's did (for which she was thankful, given all the nasty stuff Amy had told her about it when they were teenagers.) She'd didn't know if the Silence had sterilized her or if it was because of her hybrid nature, but she had always been certain that kids weren't going to be a part of her future. It hadn't really bothered her. She and the Doctor led such chaotic lives that having a child would be psychopathic. She certainly couldn't raise a child in prison and the Doctor...he needed too much raising himself. (He'd probably say the same about her and he'd be right.) Besides, she didn't think there was anything in the universe that could pry him away from his TARDIS and she had a hunch that prolonged exposure to the time vortex could be very dangerous for a child. It certainly had a strong impact on a developing embryo, as she could well attest. Which is why, when the TARDIS told her she was pregnant as they were leaving Manhattan, she knew she had to disembark as soon as possible and stay away until after the child was born. The TARDIS had agreed with her and brought them to the University straight away, refusing to budge until River stepped out the door, no matter how much the Doctor cajoled and banged on the console.

Every day since then, River regretted not telling him. It had been a very strange pregnancy and she had no one to ask for advice. She wasn't even sure how long she had been pregnant or which of his many faces the Doctor had been wearing when it happened. Until she had become a professor, he had visited her so often that he nearly met himself on many occasions, especially when she was still in the Stormcage. If her jailers had known how little time she was actually spending there, they would have been very cross...

No, it was definitively not a normal human pregnancy. For one thing, it took three years from the time she found out about it until she finally gave birth (one of the drawbacks to being part of a long-lived species, she supposed). Instead of morning sickness, she had an intense desire to solve calculus problems and write acrostic poetry. Instead of bloated ankles, she developed a heightened sense of time and how it flowed around her and everything else in the universe. She felt calmer and more at peace with herself than she ever had in her life. One of the only things a Time Lord pregnancy seemed to have in common with a human one was having odd cravings, in her case bananas, jelly babies, and fish fingers dipped in custard. She couldn't get enough of those.

She'd tried to contact the Doctor during her pregnancy, but when he'd shown up at the University, she'd taken one look in his eyes and could tell that he didn't even know they had a love life yet and wasn't very happy to see her. She couldn't risk time travel to find him elsewhere and elsewhen, so she had waited until after the twins were born before trying again. Even then, she'd had to be very careful, always inviting him to somewhere they could have their usual sort of adventure, so that she wouldn't damage the timeline if he showed up too young, which he always did. (He'd even shown up as the "Wild-Eyed Bohemian" once and she'd had to teleport away before he saw her.) After a while she had given up. None of his incarnations had ever given any indication that the two of them had children. Her husband was very good at keeping secrets, but this seemed like one he would have let slip sooner or later. It could just be that he would never find out.

No, that was unacceptable. If she was going to die soon, she needed to make sure that her children were with their father. They needed someone to tell them who they were and teach them how to deal with the joys and burdens of being a Time Lord and he was the only one in the Universe who could do so. If she couldn't be around, then the Doctor had better be. She also didn't want any of his enemies to find them and turn them into weapons against him. There had to be a way to make sure that he would raise them if she couldn't. She had tried everything, though...

Suddenly, she remembered a day, many years in her past, when the Doctor taught her how to make a hypercube to send a message to him.

"This method will only work for you once, my darling River, so please make sure to use it only when your need is particularly dire. You will know when the time is right. I guarantee that the message will reach me when it needs to."

She had almost forgotten about it, as it had happened so long ago, for her anyway. For him, it had happened quite late in his timeline (as she now knew), so she was certain that he had received a hypercube from her at some point. Well, a situation couldn't get much more dire than this. Since she didn't know when he would receive it, she'd have to be vague. She decided to make it very brief.

"Hello, sweetie.

Your children need you and so do I.

Come to the University as soon as you can.

X"

She sent it off and, almost instantaneously, she heard the unmistakeable whooshing noise of the TARDIS materializing. With its brakes on, as usual.


	2. Chapter 2: Honey, I'm Home

_Author's note: For the purposes of this story, the Doctor ends up having more than the standard number of regenerations as a result of River's transfer of regeneration energy to him in "Let's Kill Hitler". Though this is tagged as an Eleven story, the Doctor in this chapter is a much later version. I've intentionally left vague which number. Eleven will appear in a different chapter. _

_I feel I should warn everyone that this chapter became a little bit smuttier than I had intended. The Doctor and River told me it was my own fault for keeping them apart for so long and for dressing him in a kilt. I hope no one minds too much. This is River, after all._

_Thanks for all the kind words and follows. Hopefully this doesn't disappoint._

**Chapter 2 - Honey, I'm Home**

"Hello, Sweetie!"

Her husband had come back to her at last. She greedily drank in the sight of him. The unruly red hair. The colorful kilt covered with question marks. He was in his final incarnation. The one she had watched die. The one she had been avoiding. The one she referred to in her diary as "The Firebrand" due to his flame-colored hair and tempestuous personality. The one with whom she was always the most free to be herself because there was so little that needed to be concealed. She'd never seen a more welcome sight, except perhaps for the ridiculous sombrero he'd decided to pair with his kilt, no doubt for her benefit. She'd have to get both off of him as soon as possible...

She rushed into his arms and he nearly crushed the breath out of her with the ferocity of his embrace.

"I'm so sorry, my love. My darling River, I'm so sorry."

She could feel his body shudder with muffled sobs as he buried his face in her curls, continuing to murmur apologies while he caressed her arms and back. She grabbed his sombrero and tossed it across the room, resolving to obliterate it later. Then she stroked his neck and gently pulled his face towards hers so she could gaze into his turquoise eyes. She'd almost forgotten how handsome he was in this body. Tears were running down both of his cheeks.

"You are forgiven, my love. Always and completely forgiven. I should be the one apologizing to you. I should have told you after New York, but I didn't have the courage."

He smiled and tapped her lightly on the nose with his finger.

"My River? Lacking in courage? Never!"

He cupped her face in his hands and drew her in for a long passionate kiss. They melted into each other, hugging, kissing, caressing, wiping away each other's tears. God, how she had missed this. She could tell that he had missed it as well. She wondered how long it had been since he had seen her and realized how cruel she had been to avoid him. She would have to apologize for that later. For now, though, they could tell each other what they had been longing to say with their eyes, their lips, their bodies, their hands...

"Going regimental, I see," she said with a cheeky grin.

"Stop it," he groaned.

"Make me," she purred.

"Maybe I don't want to," he whispered huskily.

"Then don't."

River suddenly found herself sitting precariously on the edge of her desk, with her husband's hands stroking her thighs and his lips on her neck, trailing kisses ever lower. She ran her fingers through his hair with one hand and began undoing the buttons on his shirt with the other, while he proceeded to do increasingly interesting things with his lips and hands...

Much later, a knock on the door startled them apart, the Doctor sitting up so fast that he hit his head on the underside of the desk. A petite young woman with long dark hair rushed in. "Professor Song, I was just getting the twins ready for bed and I heard you scream. Are you all ri..."

Her words trailed off as she saw the Doctor and River getting up off the floor and hastily rearranging their clothing.

"Terribly sorry. Didn't realize you had company. I'll be off then." She turned and rushed towards the door.

"No, wait. Clara, this is my husband. Doctor, this is Clara Oswald. She's my nanny."

Clara did her best to look everywhere in the room except at the Doctor and River.

"Pleased to meet you, Doctor Song. Professor Song has told me so much about you. No, I'm lying. She hasn't told me much of anything except that you're called the Doctor, no first name, how weird is that, and that you travel a lot, though there's really no excuse for leaving your wife alone with the kids so long. Where do you go that's so bloody important? Say, what's that big blue box doing over there? I should probably shut up and get out of here so you two can be alone. I'm sure you have a lot of catching up to do. Wow. You sure made a mess of your office."

The Doctor smiled. Even the echoes of his impossible girl were never at a loss for words. "Hello, Clara. I'm so pleased to meet you. How long have you been helping out my wife?"

Clara took a surreptitious peek to make sure that he and River were both presentable before turning towards him. "This crazy man tried to kidnap the twins from the hospital right after they were born. I caught him at it and stopped him. I've been working for Professor Song ever since."

River put an arm around Clara's shoulders and gave her a quick hug. "Clara is such a treasure. I don't know how I could have managed without her. She's so good with the twins. Speaking of whom, I think it's time I introduced you to them, Sweetie."

"Well past time, if you ask me," muttered Clara and headed towards the door."If you need me, Professor Song, I'll be in the kitchen, botching another soufflé."

"You'll get it right one of these days," River said with a grin. "Are the twins still awake, Clara?"

"They were still awake when I left the nursery to see what terrible thing had made their mum scream." Clara shot a pointed look in the Doctor's direction and rushed out of the room.

"She doesn't like me very much, does she? Has it been that horrible for you?"

River squeezed his hand lightly. "If you stick around long enough, she'll warm up to you. She always does eventually. After all, it's usually you that she saves, not your children. She nearly died rescuing them from that madman and I wasn't able to help much because I was still very weak from giving birth. I don't know what I would have done if Clara hadn't been there. You're still not going to tell me why we keep bumping into her, are you?"

The Doctor shook his head. "River, I can't lie to you anymore about anything. I'm too old and tired and I love you too much to give you anything less than the truth for what little remains of my life. However, there are still some questions that I'd rather not answer. That is one of them."

"Spoilers, eh? Fair enough. It's nice to know there are still a few surprises waiting for me in my life, though nothing could quite top the last one." She ushered him out of the office and led him down the hallway to the nursery. "It would have been nice to have had a hint at some point that it could happen."

The Doctor smiled ruefully. "It shouldn't have been possible. Time Lords stopped reproducing that way when the last Pythia cursed us all with sterility. Rassilon devised Looms to weave new life out of genetic material in order to keep the species from dying out. Very civilized. Very boring. Even before that, we never had many children. The Universe would have gotten very crowded very quickly if we had. We live too long."

"That's not quite what I meant," she replied. "You told me about the Pythia's curse. I just thought that at some point..."

"I assure you, River, that I had no foreknowledge. I came here as soon as I got your message." He caressed her cheek. "This was as much of a surprise to me as it was to you. I suspect the TARDIS might have had something to do with it. She's always been a mischievous old thing, but she's become even worse lately. She knows that I'm on my way to Trenzalore soon and isn't happy about it."

Seeing River's expression at the mention of Trenzalore, he lifted her hand and kissed it. "Sorry, darling. Didn't mean to walk over my own grave. Let's go see the kids."

She led him into the nursery, stopping in front of a pair of wooden cots with Gallifreyan writing on the sides. "This is your son, Arthur James Song." The Doctor picked up his son and made cooing noises as he tried to smooth down the boy's dark hair, which was already showing a tendency to stick out at odd angles.

"Hullo, Arthur! How was your day? Your sister stole your rubber duckie, eh? Well, I'll have to talk to her about that." He kissed the top of the boy's head and tickled his left foot, making him giggle.

River lifted Arthur's twin sister out of the second cot. "And this is your daughter, Sarah Amelia Song."

The Doctor grinned as he touched one of the girl's abundant red curls. "Hullo, Sarah! No, this isn't a dress. It's a kilt. Men wear them in Scotland. Very comfortable... No, it's not. It's cool. You really shouldn't steal your brother's toys, you know...Yes, I know stealing can be fun, but if you do it too often, it loses its charm." He turned to River. "She's you in miniature. Absolutely adorable." He kissed the top of his daughter's head and then kissed his wife's cheek. "Thank you for thinking of Jamie and Sarah Jane."

"You always spoke of them so fondly, I almost feel as though I knew them myself. You've traveled with so many people over the centuries, but it always seemed as though Jamie and Sarah were more precious to you than most. I thought you would approve." River sat down in a rocking chair by the window and began nursing her daughter.

"I do. Your parents were very precious to me, too, and I'm glad our children also have their names. They'll have many other names eventually, but it's wonderful that they'll start out with names that belonged to their grandparents." The Doctor sat down on a footstool next to River. He cradled his son affectionately, but his eyes were on his wife. "River, you never answered my question earlier. How horrible has it been for you? You said you should have told me after New York. Is that the last time you saw me?"

River shrugged. "That's a tricky question. The last time I saw you was at the ball on Kisnios 7. Before that, there was the incident with the Rutans, the Colosseum, the trip to Zarkanthia...I've seen you a number of times since New York, but the last time you knew you were my husband was when the TARDIS dropped me off here after New York. That was almost four years ago for me."

"So that's why..." The Doctor went quiet for a few minutes. "That time you invited me here to help deal with the shape-shifting vampire on the faculty? You were pregnant then, weren't you?" At her reluctant nod, his eyes filled with tears. "The way I treated you that day...and so soon after you'd lost your parents... Oh River, what have I done to you? No wonder you're always telling me that you hate me. You should hate me. I've ruined your life. How can you still want me around? I only bring you pain and grief."

River sighed. "Sweetie, if we weren't in the nursery right now, I'd slap you for being such a sentimental idiot. You can't blame yourself for how you treated me before you even knew who I was."

"Oh, yes I can. You can't let me off the hook on this one, River. From the first day I met you, I knew you were destined to be the most important person in the Universe to me, but I ran from it because I didn't want to let time be the boss of me. That's why I was so much harder for you to deal with when I was younger. I don't like destiny. It's too confining. If I liked confinement, I never would have left Gallifrey." He paused and rocked his son gently for a few moments before continuing.

"I call myself a Time Lord, but time has always lorded it over me where you're concerned. Everything keeps happening in the wrong order. But I'm going to change that starting right now. Our timelines are probably the closest to being in sync that they have ever been or ever will be again. I'm going to stay with you and the kids for as long as time will let me. You deserve that much. You deserve far better." He paused again, his eyes peering into hers intently. "You still haven't answered my question, River. How horrible has it been for you? Don't hide the damage, my darling. Let me be the strong one for a change."

River hugged her daughter to her as she tried to figure out the best way to respond. He had never before told her a single thing about the first time he had met her. She wondered what it was that she had done...would do...that had impacted him so strongly. "I think Sarah's full now. It's her brother's turn." The Doctor stood up and handed his son to her, took his daughter off her lap, and sat down again with the girl cradled against his chest. He stared intently at River's face and watched a myriad of emotions playing across it.

"I don't quite know what to say, Sweetie. I guess I've been spending too much time with your younger selves lately. It's really hard for me to talk about this kind of thing." She began nursing her son and looked out the window, not sure if she could look at her husband without bursting into tears. "I don't know if I can. Isn't it enough that we're together now?"

"River, please. I need to know." His voice was barely a whisper.

She turned towards him and sighed. "What's been horrible about the last few years is that I haven't really been able to talk to you. Not that playing around with your younger selves isn't great fun. It is. But I've missed being able to say more than three sentences to you without having to use the word 'spoilers.' I've missed your touch. I've missed having you trust me." She turned away and looked pensively out the window.

"I know you've been avoiding me and I know why." The Doctor attempted to say something, but she cut him off. "It doesn't really bother me, Sweetie. I don't mind endings as much as you do. You say you don't like to have time be the boss of you...I'm the daughter of the TARDIS. Time has treated me like a plaything from the day I was born. My life has never been linear. My parents might not have gotten together if I hadn't given them a gentle push. I was even named after myself, for God's sake." She turned to face him, her eyes clouded with tears. "I figured out a long time ago that our relationship was running mostly back to front and that you know how and when I will die. I'm OK with that, though I know that you're not. The only thing that has been worrying me about it is what will become of our children after I'm gone."

The Doctor murmured soothingly, "You don't need to worry. They'll be fine. They'll be absolutely magnificent."

"You said you had no foreknowledge," River said sharply.

"I didn't. They waited to tell me who they were until after I got your message. Take after their mother." He gave her a few moments to digest that before continuing. "You've probably met them before and didn't know it. They're very good at disguises. I wasn't even able to figure it out after traveling with them for several years. They're that good."

"You've been traveling with them?" River could scarcely believe what she was hearing.

"You've been avoiding me and I know why, but I've often been told that I should never travel alone so, when I couldn't get a hold of you, I invited a couple of young people to see the Universe with me. They never even gave the slightest hint of who they were. Acted like they were normal 23rd Century humans." The Doctor kissed the top of his daughter's head. She had fallen asleep.

"Well, I guess I'll have to make sure that they learn everything there is to know about that era then. I think I need to brush up on it myself." River felt as though a very large weight had been lifted off her shoulders. "In the meantime, we should put the twins to bed, go to my bedroom, and pick up where we left off in my office."

"I couldn't agree more, Professor."


End file.
